BILL LANT: No drastic changes from past shutdowns

Monday

Oct 7, 2013 at 10:23 PM

I spent a lot of my week doing things around the cabin that I had been putting off all summer.

I spent a lot of my week doing things around the cabin that I had been putting off all summer. You know how it is, “it’s a longtime until cold weather, that can wait.” I think I’ve procrastinated long enough. It’s a real pain moving into smaller quarters and not being able to find the tools and stuff you need to do a job. At least I’m helping the local economy by running to town every hour or so and buying something that I know I already have if I could just remember where I put the darned thing.

I was honored with an invitation to present a resolution to the parents of fallen hero Chris Marion. Chris was a 20-year-old Pineville soldier with the 101st Airborne in Iraq in 2006, when he and three other men were killed by a roadside bomb. The McDonald County High School Army JROTC Cadets, along with the American Legion Pineville Post 392, and the Patriot Guard, have held this ceremony for the last seven years. It was a very well done and impressive ceremony and I was sure proud to be a part of it this year.

Saturday evening we went over to Fairview for their annual chili supper fundraiser. They have great food, wonderful company and the event always draws a good crowd. Fairview was the home of John Q. Hammons and he donated a wonderful community center and park to the city some years back. We had a great time and were able to visit with some folks we hadn’t seen in a while.

The big news all week has been the government shutdown. Is it just me, or is all that’s shutdown really just things they can inconvenience people with and cause more heartbreaking news stories? Kudos to the World War 2 veterans who visited the memorial anyway. It sure seems to me that we are either embarking on another “crisis” of some type or facing some huge penalty every month. This seems to be such a popular political tactic that now the states are picking up on the idea and even some cities are giving it a try.

How short are our memories anyway? I believe this is the 17th time we have endured a “government shutdown.”

Can you think of one thing that has been drastically changed because of them? Have any of the forecast disasters come about? Who remembers that when Reagan was president, the Democrats shut the government down six times? Speaking of Reagan, he and Speaker Tip O’Neill were at odds about most everything politically, but remained friends and were able to accomplish many good things for America by working out their differences. Government on all levels, city councils, school boards, counties, states, and federal waste far too much time and money fighting among themselves instead of figuring out the best way to serve their constituents.

This crisis will soon be over and there will be another one to take its place. A little lady from the south end of my district put it very well last week when she told me that the shutdown really wasn’t so bad; when they are shutdown they aren’t spending or borrowing any money we don’t have.

More next week, until then I am and remain in your service.

Bill Lant represents the people of Newton and McDonald counties in the Missouri House of Representatives.